KIBeast

Any PKI can't not afford to put in a mega ride after a mega ride because it's is not open year around. This is so not true. If it was, why would they make million dollar investments and improvements every year. And, Cedar Point is only seasonal as well and has managed to make huge capital improvements every year too.

I never attempted to get a job in high school, so ok. I was referring to the people whom were looking for work. You don't have to have a job or be looking for one to know when the job market is bad. Also, Reagan cannot take credit for ending the cold war. You can credit Gorbachev (sp?) for that. Regan escalated the cold war if anything. The only other time we have come that close to a nuclear war was when Kennedy was in office with the nukes over in Cuba. Also, if you were told that they were going to use jumbo jets as missiles to attack NYC before it happened, you'd probably think that was ridiculous too. Actually, history tells us that terrorists have often used planes, maybe not to crash them into anything, but definitely many, many highjackings. It was only a matter of time before some extremist group did use the jumbo jets for something of the like. Well know fact. Then again, if I sell a guy a car and he uses it in a drive by, am I part of the crime? You are if you knew of his intent. Maybe Bin Laden said he would never turn on us, but what made us believe it? He already tried to destroy the towers once. It is also sickening that it was CIA money that funded Al Qaeda and trained their people. I know that it was used to fight off the Russians, but now it makes me wonder if maybe the Russians were on to something or knew something we didn't. Sorry, I should not have been so sensitive and defensive, I apologize. But, it still does not change my opinion of Regan.

Don't like the status of your working environment, blame Allen Greenspan, not the president. First, I never said that I was laid off. I was in high school when he was president...I'm not that old. Second, if it is not the fault of the president, then why would it be such an issue with every election? Especially in the current election. You see major ads by both Republicans and Democrats concerning job loss overseas. So, you see, it is not ignorant or uneducated. You just made a lot of assumptions. I suppose you believe Clinton is the only one to blame when it comes to the attacks on the twin towers? Guess what? The Bush family has had business dealings with Bin Laden long before Clinton was in office. Also, why was it that relatives of Bin Laden were airlifted out of this country the day after 9/11 when no one was supposed to be flying? And, did you know George W. Bush's grades were not good enough to get him into the great colleges he attended? His daddy's money got him in. If anybody else had applied with those grades, they would have been turned down. You can find this all on-line.

I will give him respect since he has passed, but I do not think he was a great president. My state's unemployment was extremely high the entire length of his two terms. And, even though it was not proven to include him personally, in one of his terms his people sold illegal weapons to Iran. Like I said, I will give him respect due to all that pass away, but no respect on the way he ran this country. I guess it should not be unexpected that people remember him so fondly because we tend to remember things in our past as better than they actually were.

Actually, I did sit near the front.

I'd have to say Hanger 18 in FoF... it's brilliantly done. I agree. I just wish they would update the movie. It always says something about the UFO being a stunt for a local amusement park for a new ride. Well, it's not new any more.

While I give props to Paramount for brining in some kick ass rides, there was this atmopshere about KI that made it so much better. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who notices this. Even something as simple as the music they play just walking around the park needs to be changed.

Sounds like you had a great trip. On my trip, I thought that The Beast was unusually smooth.

I wonder why they took it away. I can't remember where I heard this, but it was my understanding that the water attracted a lot of unwanted insect pests. I can remember the water and trough...it was pretty cool.

This year was the first time I got to ride Tomb Raider. I have to agree with some that this is the best themed ride in the park with FOF being a close second. Now, my favorite park theming that has nothing to do with ride theming is the garden clock. It's always been a favorite of mine along with the fountains.

I thought that the seatbelt was pointless. But, I guess it could come in handy should the restraint fail. I don't think it had any effect on my ride on The Beast.

I have been on PT, but not SDATHC. PT had very long lines when it opened like Scooby just as Boddah pointed out. PT needed to be removed probably due to its popularity or lack thereof. Same thing could happen to any ride at PKI.

Sounds like a good day to me!

If not, then if you really want a piece of KC you'll have to go to the scrap yard. And, you can see parts of it from SOB. If you look over to the right (I think it's the right) on the brake before the loop, you can see it.

I've never been on an air launch or counterweights, so I'll have to say hydraulic. I think TTD is far more intense than FOF.

Thanks. Did your day go as well as mine? Do you notice that it seems, at least for part of the day, that the same crowd of people are at all the same rides as you? I kept seeing the same people all day.

This is something that is seriously missing from PKI. What happened to the old days when they had great shows. Guess it's a thing of the past. Might as well replace them with new rides if they're not going to put on any good shows.

Well, I would like to start my trip report with a thank you to some of the people here on this site. I took the advice of going to the back of the park first which turned out to be key in getting started. I went with my brother and two uncles. Anyway, we went to ride TR:TR. I had never been on this ride. There was virtually no wait and we waited only one cycle. I have to say that I was impressed with the theming throughout the ride. My only complaint would be that I thought that it was going to do a lot more than what happened. Although, now, I would have to disagree with some that it would be a huge deal to lengthen the program. I would have to give this ride an A minus. Next, we walked directly onto The Beast. Even after 25 years of terrorizing park goers, this is by far my favorite coaster in the park. Since the line was so short, we decided before we even got our first ride, that we would get right back in line and do it again. I have to say, after all of my years of riding The Beast, these two back to back rides were about as smooth as glass. And, I never thought I would say that. Still the #1 wood coaster in the world in my book. After that, we headed for Coney Mall and Flight of Fear. This also was a walk on. I managed two rides on this one twice. I could be wrong, but I thought it felt like it had become rougher this year. I bought an on-ride photo because I have been working on a collection of coaster photos. Still, FOF is a sweet ride and I quickly found out if you ride a bit defensively, it is not so bad. This seemed to be the theme of the day...ride defensively. When we exited FOF, we decided to head over to The Racers which had a zero wait. My uncles rode forward, and my brother and I rode backwards as he wanted to ride in the back seat since he had never done this. You know, I have been riding this one even longer than The Beast and it still has great air time. Next, we headed over to the Action Zone. One of my uncles did not want to ride Delirium, so he waited for the rest of us at the exit. We waited about two to three ride cycles which was not very long at all. When we were ready to load, a ride op pulled my brother aside as she wanted to measure him to make sure that he was not too tall to ride. Warning, if you are 6' 4", you may be told that you are too big to ride, even though my brother had been on it last year. He was a bit PO'd but got over it. Another warning...if you have not been on Delirium, you just about need to empty your pockets before riding. It crushed my sunglasses and squeezed about a half of a tube of sunblock into my side pocket. This was my first ride on Delirium and I have to say that this ride blows TR:TR out of the water. I was truly nervous to ride this one. I was extremely pleased with the experience....it gets an A++. Now, it was on to Son of Beast. What made this trip even more special was the fact that my uncles had not been since Paramount took over, so there were several rides that were new to them. They did both comment on how they did not like the constant movie music that seemed to be playing all day long. I didn't care for it either. In my opinion, SOB has not improved in the least since last year. I usually don't have any complaints about this coaster, but it shook me to death. I honestly felt like I needed a catscan or MRI afterwards. I must not have disliked it too much as I wound up with three trips on it. I did, however, notice the main problem with SOB. There is way too much shuffling left to right of the trains. This was clearly visible from the middle of the train when I looked at the front car. Otherwise, I still liked it pretty well. After that, we headed over to Top Gun. Still a pretty good suspended coaster except for the fact that it was too short. I did notice that it seemed that the theming was pretty much back in order. When we left TG, we went to the Drop Zone stunt tower. I was apprehensive about riding it as I had been on it once and was simply terrified by the whole experience. This was a good time though because I was the only one in our group that had been on it. As we ascended over the bungee tower, my brother looked over at me and seriously asked, aren't we to the top yet? Why don't you look and see. I said,"Hell no!", "look yourself. Then there was the moment of stillness before they drop you. I think what scares me about this ride it reminds me of an elevator just falling. Can't stand that feeling, and the height bothers me as well. Funny, I can ride any coaster of any height and it does not bother me. But, put ,me on a freefall ride and I am holding on for dear life. I was glad when the ride was over. This was probably our longest wait of the day. Next, we hit Face/Off. I love this ride. It was kind of a new experience for me as I had always rode this one in the front or back of the train. We rode so that we all faced eachother. I enjoyed seeing the expression on my uncles' face when we ascended the tower to start...priceless. Even though it is a short ride, I feel that it is very intense. After that, one of my uncles and I decided to catch a ride on Congo Falls. He had forgotten about the little bump on the way down which lifts you out of your seat a little. We didn't get too wet as we had only about 4-6 of us in our boat. This ride was pretty much empty the whole day. Finally, we hit The Vortex. After 17 years, this ride still kicks butt. I took some advice on this one and rode it defensively which made for a better ride. I still love Vortex because it still has that gut wrenching first drop. Still a winner in my book. I won't go any further with my report since everything else was just a repeat of what we had done before, with the exception of the last ride of our day. We rode SOB last and my brother wanted to ride back to back since the line was so short. Well, while our uncles waited on us, they decided to go on the bungee tower. They loved it so much that they bought a video and photo to commemorate the experience. I did discover that some by riding in a seat in the middle of the car as opposed to over top of a wheel helped greatly. We didn't do this on our last ride and I paid dearly for it. I have never had the restraint bar hit me in the gut so many time. It literally felt like I was punched in the stomach. We shopped a little at the end and was pleasantly surprised to find the unofficial Guidebook to PKI by Charles Infosino, AKA Italian Chef. We wound up leaving at 7:15 pm as we had enough. I told them that I didn't care to leave early so we could make it home at a decent time. If we had been all day and only been on everything once, I would have wanted to stay. But, since we had such a great day and had squeezed in 16 rides before 7:00, I felt like I already got my money's worth.

I found a great new item on ebay. It is a video tape of The Beast that was made before it was open to the public. The company who made this filmed the entire ride from a first person point of view. Here's the link to that...The Beast. I may bid on this one.

Yes, they have been considered a thrill park. At one time, they were in the coaster race that involves Six Flags Magic Mountain and Cedar Point, but PKI decided a few years back to drop out of that race. Probably had something to do with the SOB problems.

I think with all their extra land that they haven't use PKI should make an expansion to the park and call it Hollywood Boulevard. And that way they wouldn't need to rename and ruin of any other parts of the park like I-Street or Coney Mall. Actually, I think that is the best idea yet. PKI could do it like when they opened Action Zone. They spent a ton of money on it right off.

I have to say The Beast, but SOB is not far behind. They are really two different wood coaster experiences. SOB is more like a twister coaster whereas The Beast is more of a terrain coaster.

It is great that PKI is in some elite company, but they may be gaining a reputation by some on the west coast as just a kids' park, and not a park for the whole family. I hope this is not the case, there are some very good thrill attractions that PKI has that are not getting any noteriety. But, this is how PKI is marketing itself...as a family park and a great place to take your kids, not a thrill park. This has been pointed out to me several times on this board, and everyone seemed to be ok with this. Now, someone's not happy because they're not known as a thrill park any more.

i saw that show on nick one time called rocket power. and on that show they have that pier area with the roller coaster. wouldnt it be neat if they relpicated that roller coaster at KI? or perhaps an entire small themed area within nick central dedicated to that pier. like have the restaurant that the dad owns and everything. I've never seen this. Can you post a pic? I would love to see PKI get a super saturator.

While Son of Beast is not the best coaster in the park it is no where near the worse. There may be alot of helixs but what more could you want with a wooden coaster that loops and a wooden coaster that stands 200 feet +????? The record has standed for 4 years and probaly alot longer. For the whimps that say this coaster is too rough look at The Beast that is just as jerkey and rough as the SOB and arent woodies supposed to be rough? Finally, someone who agrees with me. You may argue that a wooden structure is limited.... well, my not so brilliant friend, if you look right down the road in Rivertown, you'll notice SoB's daddy, which is a wooden coaster with a couple of helixes The main difference aside of the loop is tunnels and trees. What else does The Beast do that SOB does not?